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Ballet

Travellers walk through Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, on July 15. Photo: Elson Li

Letters | Hong Kong must give high-calibre talent a reason to come

Readers discuss how Hong Kong can attract well-connected professionals, a local ballet’s cross-cultural appeal, and why the second phase of the city’s plastic ban shouldn’t be delayed.

Style Edit: Ferragamo celebrates 70 years of its signature ballet flat

Review | Hong Kong Ballet’s The Butterfly Lovers is a triumph of choreography

5 of the best things to do this weekend in Hong Kong, October 18-20

From the Hong Kong Ballet to the Asian Film Festival and World Shochu and Awamori Festival, our pick of the best things to do this weekend.

Choreographer Ricky Hu Songwei directed the dance programme for Hong Kong Ballet: The Butterfly Lovers.

5 must-see performances in Hong Kong this weekend, October 18-20

Our top five picks include performing arts shows as part of HKPAX, a new ballet and a concert featuring American jazz legend Wynton Marsalis.

Inside Hong Kong Ballet’s dramatic reimagining of an old Chinese folk tale

As part of its 45th anniversary celebrations, Hong Kong Ballet has enlisted a who’s who of the creative world for its vivid interpretation of a classic folk tale.

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Crouching Tiger art director on his new Hong Kong Ballet project

Oscar-winner Tim Yip talks about designing the set and costumes for Hong Kong Ballet’s The Butterfly Lovers and his fascination with dance.

Tim Yip, set and costume designer for Hong Kong Ballet’s The Butterfly Lovers, at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on September 11, 2024. The Oscar-winning art director, who worked on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, says he is fascinated by different genres of dance. Photo: Jonathan Wong

How Hong Kong Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker changed this fashion designer

‘In fashion, people always think that Paris or New York are best, but one thing I always think we forget is our own culture,’ says fashion designer Mountain Yam

Explainer | What’s on at HKPAX, Hong Kong’s performing arts ‘mega event’

Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo, meant to promote the city as a global hub of culture, will feature a week of dance, theatre and networking.

Review | Hong Kong Ballet’s The Wizard of Oz is a real spectacle for the family

The Wizard of Oz by the Hong Kong Ballet is big and bold, with special effects, spectacular designs and energetic dancing, but the music and story structure lack emotion.

Zoe Loo as Dorothy and Natalie Lu with a puppet of Toto the dog in Hong Kong Ballet’s The Wizard of Oz. Photo: Conrad Dy-Liacco; courtesy of Hong Kong Ballet

Profile | Hong Kong dancer so good she skipped a step on way to ballet’s top tier

Tirion Law talks about her surprise promotion to principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada and her upcoming Hong Kong performance with another of the city’s international stars, Lam Chun-wing.

Tirion Law and Lam Chun-wing rehearse at the Hong Kong Dance Theatre in Wong Chuk Hang on August 26, 2024. Photo: Edmond So

Hong Kong Ballet artistic director on ‘over the top’ The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz has been a favourite of Septime Webre since his childhood. His version of the tale of Dorothy and her friends for Hong Kong Ballet leans towards the ‘outrageous’, he says.

Bronte, Bizet, Nureyev, TS Eliot at Hong Kong Arts Festival 2025

Carmen as it was originally staged, Wuthering Heights as music theatre, Andras Schiff and his chamber orchestra, and rarely heard Beethoven are among highlights of the 2025 Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Hong Kong-born designer Alain on how Alainpaul’s Joyce debut is a homecoming

The brand’s co-founder Alain talks dance, bending the rules, and the influence of the late Louis Vuitton artistic director Virgil Abloh

Alainpaul cofounders Alain and Luis Philippe. Photos: Handout

Romeo and Juliet changed her life – qipao designer on the power of ballet

Contemporary qipao brand Qipology founder Julie Liu talks to the Post about watching the ballet Romeo and Juliet when she was around 10 and wanting to be a fashion designer because she liked the costumes.

Contemporary qipao brand Qipology founder Julie Liu talks to the Post about the first time she saw the ballet Romeo and Juliet, and why it triggered her to become a fashion designer. Photo: Qipology

Review | Swan Lake lead dancers stunning, but Hong Kong Ballet production has flaws

Ye Feifei has never danced the Odette/Odile role better, and guest dancer Matthew Ball was her ideal foil, in Hong Kong Ballet’s new Swan Lake. But the production is marred by some questionable choices.

Who is Benjamin Millepied, Natalie Portman’s ex-husband – and did he cheat on her?

After months of media speculation about Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied’s marriage being strained, the pair have officially called it quits – here’s what you need to know about him

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Are ballet dancers anorexic? Insiders bust myths, describe them as athletes

Ballet dancers are both artists and athletes, insiders say, and ballet similar to a competitive sport. That dancers are thin is a consequence of their training, not anorexia, they explain.

Bavarian State Ballet dancer Maria Baranova dances during a ballet rehearsal. She and the troupe’s director reveal their thoughts on why ballet is a competitive sport and why being thin is a consequence of training. Photo: Getty Images

‘Do you get aroused?’ A retired dancer aims to demystify ballet

David McAllister, former principal dancer with The Australian Ballet, and its longest serving artistic director, helps people peek behind the curtain with his new book, ‘Ballet Confidential’.

China-Russia cultural bond flourishes with ballet, theatre and music

Amid flurry of performances in China, Russia looks to be seen in a positive light in the face of Western condemnation over the Ukraine invasion: analysts.

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Who is Mick Jagger’s 36-year-old girlfriend and baby mama, Melanie Hamrick?

Mick Jagger has eight kids with five different women – so who is his current girlfriend and baby mama to his youngest child? Here’s what we know about Melanie Hamrick

Ballerina Melanie Hamrick is 44 years younger than her rock star boyfriend Mick Jagger. Photo: @melhamrick/Instagram

Profile | ‘I wanted to create’: Hong Kong Ballet choreographer Ricky Hu on his calling

Ricky Hu Songwei, Hong Kong Ballet’s award-winning choreographer-in-residence, talks to the Post about studying in in China and New York and finding his artistic voice after switching to choreography.

Ricky Hu Songwei at Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The award-winning Hong Kong Ballet choreographer-in-residence opens up about his journey and finding his artistic voice. Photo: Edmond So

American Ballet Theatre ‘excited’ about return to China in November

‘For us, it’s a joyful experience,’ says artistic director Susan Jaffe, on the company’s first visit to the country since 2013.

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How is the Hong Kong Ballet bringing dinosaurs to life? Collaborator explains

Hong Kong Ballet’s new production, Sam and her Amazing Book of Dinosaurs, leans into digital technology to bring the story to life – one of the show’s collaborators explains how.

50 Shades of Grey meets ballet in Mick Jagger’s partner’s steamy debut novel

Melanie Hamrick’s new erotic fiction book First Position delves into the sex-filled world of ballet and was inspired by 50 Shades of Grey and Black Swan.

Melanie Hamrick, the long-time partner of Mick Jagger, says that with her erotic fiction novel First Position she wants to give a view of what ballet is like “behind the gilded curtain”. Photo: AP

‘Epic and intimate’ Like Water for Chocolate ballet opens in New York

As the ballet adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s 1989 novel Like Water for Chocolate opens in New York, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon talks about its challenges and the purpose behind his work.

Cassandra Trenary and Herman Cornejo during a dress rehearsal for “Like Water for Chocolate”, which has opened at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Photo: AP

Why Royal Ballet principals love dancing La Bayadère with Hong Kong Ballet

Principal dancers at the UK’s Royal Ballet Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov relish being in Hong Kong for two performances of La Bayadère with the Hong Kong Ballet.

‘How are they going to do that?’ Band member on doing ballet to Black Sabbath

‘I just couldn’t imagine how they’d do ballet to Black Sabbath,’ says the band’s guitarist, Tony Iommi, of Black Sabbath – The Ballet, a project by Birmingham Royal Ballet under its artistic director, Cuba’s Carlos Acosta.

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Ballet
From Hong Kong to New York and beyond, find out what's happening in one of the most graceful and elegant - and punishingly hard to learn - forms of dance.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
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